Everyday movers, shakers

Among the tenets Americans hold dear is that anyone can grow up to become . . . famous. You thought we were going to say “president,” didn’t you? Don’t be ridiculous.

Joe the Plumber, who went from small-town obscurity to overnight fame after his sidewalk encounter with Barack Obama became a centerpiece of John McCain’s campaign rhetoric, has acquired an agent to manage his career as national celebrity.

There were other everyday Americans whose serendipitous interactions with the presidential candidates also made waves. Some abruptly changed the narrative by asking the unexpected question or provoking the unexpected comment. Others gave the candidate a story to tell Americans along the campaign trail. No one took off quite like Samuel “Joe” Wurzelbacher, Ohio’s most famous nonlicensed plumber. But here, we celebrate them nonetheless.

--

When Lynn Savage attended a John McCain town hall meeting in August 2007, it was more out of a sense of spousal obligation to her husband than a desire to see the candidate. Savage, a 55-year-old special education assistant, is a Democrat. Husband Jim is a McCain supporter.

“I went because he went,” she said. “I thought I would keep him company.” But her attendance at the Wolfeboro, N.H., event launched one of the most poignant tales that the Republican nominee recounts on the campaign trail.

Savage told McCain about her son, Army Cpl. Matthew Stanley, who had been killed in Iraq in 2006. Then she presented the former Vietnam prisoner of war with a bracelet bearing her son’s name and rank and the date of his death.

“During the ‘70s,” she said, “I wore a bracelet for POWs. I thought it would be nice for him to wear one to keep in mind what he was running for, to keep my son’s name alive.”

McCain put the dark metallic bracelet on his right wrist and wears it to this day. At many campaign events in the months since, McCain has concluded his remarks with the story of the bracelet, Stanley and Savage.

“He was killed in combat outside of Baghdad just before Christmas,” McCain told a crowd this year, recounting how Savage had asked him to “do everything in your power to make sure that my son’s death was not in vain.”

Savage said she had no idea where her chance encounter would lead. “I’m just so thrilled he keeps my son’s name alive. Not just my son . . . everyone who has passed in this war.”

She saw McCain again last month before a rally in Goffstown, N.H. And on Tuesday -- for the first time in her life, Savage said -- she plans to pull the lever for a Republican.

“He promised he would . . . keep it close to his heart, and he truly does,” she said.

-- Seema Mehta